How long does a stomp last? Does a slight translate into seven points? Does a flag-plant carry into the next season?

Any coach worth his whistle uses any motivation he can find, which brings us to the Megaphone Trophy awarded to the winner of Michigan State-Notre Dame game, a tradition dating to 1949. When the Irish play Saturday in East Lansing, the Megaphone Trophy will be in the Spartans' locker room and then handed to the winner after the game.

After Michigan State beat Notre Dame last year, a few Spartans planted their school flag at midfield at Notre Dame Stadium. Michigan State would have rather celebrated with the Megaphone Trophy, but it was nowhere to be found.

"They didn't plan on losing it, so they didn't bring it," Michigan State coach John L. Smith told reporters. Notre Dame said it does not bring rivalry trophies to games with the exception being the Stanford rivalry because of an alumni club locker room presentation. After the Spartans beat the Irish in 1997 at Notre Dame, Michigan State associate athletics director John Lewandowski had to drive back to South Bend the next day to retrieve the Megaphone Trophy.

So what effect, if any, do slights, plants and stomps have on the game?

"When you use something like the flag incident as your motivation for the game, that lasts for about five minutes once the game starts. Once you start hitting each other in the mouth a few times in the game, that stuff is over with," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis says. "I mean, you can use all sorts of quotes and things on the board to get you through the week. The bottom line is we need to play better. We need to play better than we did last week (against Michigan) or we'll lose again this week."

Louisville can quantify the effect. In games in which teams have stomped on their cardinal logo, Louisville is 5-0, including last week's victory against Miami (Fla.). Combined score in those games: 256-36.

Even if a slight is unintentional, a coach probably won't let the truth get in the way, as was the case last season in the Louisville-Rutgers game.

In their pregame warm-up, the Scarlet Knights punted the ball out of their end zone toward midfield, huddled at midfield and then ran off the field, as was their usual routine. The Cardinals saw it as a bird stomp and stomped the Scarlet Knights 55-7. Much was made of Rutgers' backfired bravado in the aftermath. "The Rutgers situation last year was really blown out of proportion. It wasn't a premeditated thing," Big East associate commissioner Nick Carparelli said. "They got a raw deal on that one."

Needless to say, after that game Rutgers coach Greg Schiano changed his pregame routine. Now the team punts from midfield to the end zone. "Just in case any other schools have sacred logos," Carparelli said.

A win on a prayer?

When Penn State coach Joe Paterno was asked about his game plan to stop Ohio State's Ted Ginn Jr. on Saturday, he made a small joke about putting something in Ginn's food the morning of the game. Then he talked about worrying about more than just Ginn.

"Ted Ginn is a great athlete, but there is a kid by the name of (Anthony) Gonzalez on that team," Paterno said. "There is a kid we tried like the dickens to get whose father is a great coach, (Brian) Robiskie. They have a great quarterback. The tight end is a big-league player. The tailback is a big-league player. What do you do? You go in there and pray. You got a good prayer to St. Jude for hopeless causes or something?"

Marshall memory

Thirty-five years ago Monday, Marshall edged Xavier 15-13 in its first home game following the plane crash that killed 75 Marshall players, support staff and alumni Nov. 14, 1970, en route from a game against East Carolina. The movie, We Are Marshall, chronicling the tragedy and the Thundering Herd's comeback against Xavier with Matthew McConaughey as Marshall coach Jack Lengyel, is scheduled to be released in December.